Plant Five for Life

Plant Five For Life connects children and families with nature. Our core work aims to honor life, shift cultural focus and inspire a sense of obligation to plant in all generations. In collaboration with area birthing centers, hospitals, and pre- and post-natal care centers, five trees are gifted to every newborn, marking the start of new life and contributing to their life support system.

The trees are matched within the first year after birth to sites in or near each child's neighborhood and planted with the families or planted by our network of community partners. The program creates opportunities for families to engage with the trees growth and their community as their child grows.

The newborn planting locations within our network are synchronized with stated community development goals and broader city and county watershed, restoration and reforestation objectives and chosen for their proximity and ability to provide support for other family and social services. Sites are prioritized by their ability to be protected in perpetuity.

Why do Trees Matter?

Trees support life in a myriad of ways. They 1) improve our air quality by lessening the impact of airborne pollutants and absorbing carbon dioxide; 2) help keep our drinking water and waterways healthy through filtration and soil stabilization; 3) provide food; 4) provide comfort and cooling and 5) provide places for community to gather together. TREES SAVE LIVES.

FUture outcomes

Planting five trees for every child born in Pittsburgh each year ( ~ 13,000 children per year), would increase the number of trees in the city/county by 65,000 trees per year. By 2030, we can reach 780,000 planted trees; a goal of the Pittsburgh Climate Action Plan.

Recent research by scientists at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies demonstrates that we have lost 46% of earth's tree cover since the start of human civilization, currently at a rate of 1.4 trees per person/year or 10 billion trees a year. If every person on the planet planted 5 trees each year for the next 40 years, we could reverse this trend and see a net gain globally.